{"id":172,"date":"2023-09-19T17:34:30","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T17:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/chapter\/email-chains-and-listserv\/"},"modified":"2024-07-23T18:19:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T18:19:47","slug":"email-chains-and-listserv","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/chapter\/email-chains-and-listserv\/","title":{"raw":"Learn It 3.4.1 Written Communication Channels","rendered":"Learn It 3.4.1 Written Communication Channels"},"content":{"raw":"<section class=\"textbox learningGoals\">\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Understand how email chains and listservs are used for communication<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Compare various instant messaging and texting services<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Explore how multimedia platforms can be used professionally<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Understand how to choose the most suitable communication channel for a specific message<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<h2>Digital Group Communication<\/h2>\r\n<h3>Group Email<\/h3>\r\n<p>An early digital method of professional group communication was through group or mass <strong>email chains<\/strong>. One advantage of using email is that the sender can easily add as many recipients as they want. Any replies from the recipient(s) are stored under this original email and allow for interactive comments and replies from all recipients. However, more often you will hear it referred to as an <strong>email thread<\/strong> since the phrase \"email chain\" has a negative connotation because of its association with [pb_glossary id=\"2098\"]spam[\/pb_glossary] email. Chain emails are a type of email that asks recipients to forward the email to multiple people. These are considered to be a type of spam since they often contain false information, hoaxes, or an attempt to scam the recipient.<\/p>\r\n<p>Businesses often use email to provide information to customers, such as a sale promotion or recall of defective items. Since email is an affordable way to reach a large customer base, it is tempting to want to send out mass emails. Yet, a mass email approach to sending this type of information can quickly become unruly since there are so many recipients, and all participants are allowed to respond to the original sender or each other. This can lead to threads of responses being embedded within other threads, making it difficult to find specific information easily. Also, mass emails run the risk of violating recipients' privacy by disclosing all of the recipients' email addresses if the sender does not use the appropriate [pb_glossary id=\"2101\"]BCC[\/pb_glossary], or blind copy, option.<\/p>\r\n<h3>Digital Mailing List<\/h3>\r\n<p>To address these limitations and potential liabilities, companies use mailing list software, also called a <strong>listserv<\/strong>. Listserv software was created to help manage larger numbers of users and for commercial purposes. Listservs provide a way to reach thousands of people via email when they subscribe to the listserv. Listserv software also manages the \u201csubscribe\/unsubscribe\u201d administration and can allow threaded discussion of the email content among the users on the list. The term listserv has been used to refer to electronic mailing list software applications that allow a sender to send one email to the list, which then transparently sends it to the addresses of the subscribers to the list.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<section class=\"textbox example\">\r\n<h4>The Sierra Club<\/h4>\r\n<p>The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization founded in 1892 with over 3.8 million members and supporters today.[footnote]Sierra Club. \u201cAbout the Sierra Club.\u201d Accessed March 13, 2024. https:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/about-sierra-club[\/footnote] It is a nonprofit, member-supported public interest organization that promotes the conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions.<\/p>\r\n<p>Interested individuals can easily enter their email on the organization's website to sign up for a newsletter that arrives by email twice a month. Rather than contacting a human, recipients can conveniently click within the email to unsubscribe if they want to stop receiving the newsletters.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<p>Manually-administered mailing list systems that rely on human administrators cannot keep up with the demands of such large groups. With today\u2019s listserv abilities, management and subscription procedures for mailing lists are simple and flexible, leading to greater opportunities for engagement with interested parties.<\/p>\r\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\">[ohm2_question height=\"500\"]14700[\/ohm2_question]<\/section>","rendered":"<section class=\"textbox learningGoals\">\n<ul>\n<li>Understand how email chains and listservs are used for communication<\/li>\n<li>Compare various instant messaging and texting services<\/li>\n<li>Explore how multimedia platforms can be used professionally<\/li>\n<li>Understand how to choose the most suitable communication channel for a specific message<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<h2>Digital Group Communication<\/h2>\n<h3>Group Email<\/h3>\n<p>An early digital method of professional group communication was through group or mass <strong>email chains<\/strong>. One advantage of using email is that the sender can easily add as many recipients as they want. Any replies from the recipient(s) are stored under this original email and allow for interactive comments and replies from all recipients. However, more often you will hear it referred to as an <strong>email thread<\/strong> since the phrase &#8220;email chain&#8221; has a negative connotation because of its association with <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_172_2098\">spam<\/a> email. Chain emails are a type of email that asks recipients to forward the email to multiple people. These are considered to be a type of spam since they often contain false information, hoaxes, or an attempt to scam the recipient.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses often use email to provide information to customers, such as a sale promotion or recall of defective items. Since email is an affordable way to reach a large customer base, it is tempting to want to send out mass emails. Yet, a mass email approach to sending this type of information can quickly become unruly since there are so many recipients, and all participants are allowed to respond to the original sender or each other. This can lead to threads of responses being embedded within other threads, making it difficult to find specific information easily. Also, mass emails run the risk of violating recipients&#8217; privacy by disclosing all of the recipients&#8217; email addresses if the sender does not use the appropriate <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_172_2101\">BCC<\/a>, or blind copy, option.<\/p>\n<h3>Digital Mailing List<\/h3>\n<p>To address these limitations and potential liabilities, companies use mailing list software, also called a <strong>listserv<\/strong>. Listserv software was created to help manage larger numbers of users and for commercial purposes. Listservs provide a way to reach thousands of people via email when they subscribe to the listserv. Listserv software also manages the \u201csubscribe\/unsubscribe\u201d administration and can allow threaded discussion of the email content among the users on the list. The term listserv has been used to refer to electronic mailing list software applications that allow a sender to send one email to the list, which then transparently sends it to the addresses of the subscribers to the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"textbox example\">\n<h4>The Sierra Club<\/h4>\n<p>The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization founded in 1892 with over 3.8 million members and supporters today.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Sierra Club. \u201cAbout the Sierra Club.\u201d Accessed March 13, 2024. https:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/about-sierra-club\" id=\"return-footnote-172-1\" href=\"#footnote-172-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a> It is a nonprofit, member-supported public interest organization that promotes the conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Interested individuals can easily enter their email on the organization&#8217;s website to sign up for a newsletter that arrives by email twice a month. Rather than contacting a human, recipients can conveniently click within the email to unsubscribe if they want to stop receiving the newsletters.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Manually-administered mailing list systems that rely on human administrators cannot keep up with the demands of such large groups. With today\u2019s listserv abilities, management and subscription procedures for mailing lists are simple and flexible, leading to greater opportunities for engagement with interested parties.<\/p>\n<section class=\"textbox tryIt\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ohm14700\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/ohm.one.lumenlearning.com\/multiembedq.php?id=14700&theme=lumen&iframe_resize_id=ohm14700&source=tnh&show_question_numbers\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/section>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-172-1\">Sierra Club. \u201cAbout the Sierra Club.\u201d Accessed March 13, 2024. https:\/\/www.sierraclub.org\/about-sierra-club <a href=\"#return-footnote-172-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div><div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_172_2098\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_172_2098\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Spam refers to unsolicited and often irrelevant messages sent over the internet to a large number of recipients. It's the email equivalent of junk mail.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_172_2101\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_172_2101\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Blind copy, or BCC in email, allows the sender to hide the recipients' email addresses from each other. Recipients of an email are not able to reply to those whose email addresses are hidden.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":9,"menu_order":19,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Email Chains and Listserv\",\"author\":\"Robert Danielson\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"LISTSERV\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/LISTSERV\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":147,"module-header":"learn_it","content_attributions":[{"type":"original","description":"Email Chains and Listserv","author":"Robert Danielson","organization":"Lumen Learning","url":"","project":"","license":"cc-by","license_terms":""},{"type":"cc","description":"LISTSERV","author":"","organization":"Wikipedia","url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/LISTSERV","project":"","license":"cc-by-sa","license_terms":""}],"internal_book_links":[],"video_content":null,"cc_video_embed_content":{"cc_scripts":"","media_targets":[]},"try_it_collection":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4135,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/172\/revisions\/4135"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/147"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/172\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.one.lumenlearning.com\/businesscommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}